Mohamed Farag, chief digital officer at CIB Egypt, said that the cooperation between the bank, AUC’s Venture Lab, and the Temenos Group contributes to the launch of innovative technological products for banking services that will help achieve financial inclusion.

Farag said that there are 60 million Egyptians eligible to deal with banks, but only 14 million of them have bank accounts, since banking activity started 125 years ago, leaving 46 million people relying on cash transactions only.

He believes that this is contrary to the vision of the state for GDP development, and therefore the parallel economy should be integrated into the formal economy to increase it.

Farag demonstrated the ability of technology to evolve. The electronic portfolio services over the last four years provided by banks has been able to attract 9.5 million customers, many of whom do not have bank accounts.

Over the last few years, the banking sector has witnessed substantial increases both in the operations and the facilities of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), or in the Presidency’s efforts to establish the National Payments Council, followed by the decisions of the Ministry of Finance to cancel government’s cash payments and launch the ‘Miza’ card.

Farag believes that the Temenos Group launch of the Marketplace platform for innovative ideas and fintech companies, will enable start-ups that provide innovative financial services to banks, will help banks to launch new products.

Marketplace aims to enable start-ups link their products and services to the banks’ technological systems.

Ayman Ismail, founder of the AUC’s Venture Lab, said that the agreement with the Temenos Group and the CIB aims to help start-ups reach the banking and financial sector, which will contribute to the growth of emerging companies, and provide them with strong growth opportunities.

This came during the conference held to announce the new cooperation between the AUC Venture Lab, the Temenos Group, and the CIB.

This alliance was strengthened in the Meet the Marketplace event held at the American University in Cairo.

The event provided an opportunity for companies specialising in financial technology, and members of the Temenos Marketplace to review the solutions they propose, and submit them to a number of Egyptian financial institutions. These specialised companies explained solutions that can accommodate the opportunities available, and face the challenges associated with the Egyptian market ,such as financial inclusion, literacy, digital participation, security, risk and compliance with the provisions of the law.